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Monday, March 17, 2014

Wedding Week: When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

Top O' the Morning!

As you know Andi is out being all blissfully newly wedded and whatnot. She made the mistake wise decision to ask me if I'd be willing to write a guest post while she was honeymooning, and I couldn't turn her down. Who am I? Why, I'm Katie from Words for Worms, and it's about to get GREEN up in here!

It's St. Patrick's Day, and since my last name is Kelly, I'm taking the reigns! I'mmostlyan impostor of an Irishwoman... Kelly is my married name. BUT! My mom has been working on our family genealogy and discovered that I am indeed 1/32 Irish. Don't tell anyone, but husband isn't actually particularly Irish either. He's mostly Slovak, but with the way patriarchal societies hand down names, the luck of the Irish has been keeping the name alive against all odds. Really though, who doesn't want to be Irish? To the devil with the technicalities! In the spirit of the harp and shamrock, let's talk about Irish authors, shall we?

1. CS Lewis- NARNIA! I feel that speaks for itself. (We refer to our attic as Narnia because it lives inside my closet and has a magical amount of space for a little cubby. A lack of climate control makes it feel like it's under the Jadis's thumb in the winter time.)

2. Emma Donoghue- Only one of my favorite modern writers! She can rock historical fiction, contemporary drama, and short stories like nobody's business. Did you read Room?! Amazing.

3. Maeve Binchy- I have liked every Maeve Binchy novel I've ever read. A super prolific writer, Binchy always gives me the most Irish of feelings. All the joys and the sorrows mixed together.

4. Oscar Wilde- Ooooh Oscar. The Importance of Being Earnest is so wonderful. I challenge you to make it through this play with a straight face! Mistaken identities, babies in handbags, Bunbury... It's all too much. What's also lovely about Oscar is that he wasn't afraid to be exactly who he was... Even if his flamboyance landed him in prison, then exile.

5. Jonathan Swift- One of the greatest satirists EVER, he wrote A Modest Proposal in which he suggested that the solution to poverty in Ireland was the consumption of the overabundance of Irish children. No, no. Not consumption, like TB. Consumption, as in, boiling up a pot 'o baby. I remember reading this in high school and laughing so hard- nobody REALLY thinks eating babies is okay, but it's a nice absurdist response to the political climate at the time.

There you have it, some AWESOME Irish authors! I'm not QUITE done though... Because Andi just got married and we're getting our Irish on, it's only appropriate that I offer up a traditional Irish wedding blessing. Congratulations, kids!

Gawwww!Katie! That was so sweet. And I have some new authors to try out!